Fight the Treatment Industrial Complex

AFSC-Arizona staff are amazing advocates for prisoners - and as such, are true blessings to our communities. Spend time on their site - lots of resources.

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NATIVE RESISTANCE AND THE CARCERAL STATE

Retiring Arizona Prison Watch...

This site was originally started in July 2009 as an independent endeavor to monitor conditions in Arizona's criminal justice system, as well as offer some critical analysis of the prison industrial complex from a prison abolitionist/anarchist's perspective. It was begun in the aftermath of the death of Marcia Powell, a 48 year old AZ state prisoner who was left in an outdoor cage in the desert sun for over four hours while on a 10-minute suicide watch. That was at ASPC-Perryville, in Goodyear, AZ, in May 2009.

Marcia, a seriously mentally ill woman with a meth habit sentenced to the minimum mandatory 27 months in prison for prostitution was already deemed by society as disposable. She was therefore easily ignored by numerous prison officers as she pleaded for water and relief from the sun for four hours. She was ultimately found collapsed in her own feces, with second degree burns on her body, her organs failing, and her body exceeding the 108 degrees the thermometer would record. 16 officers and staff were disciplined for her death, but no one was ever prosecuted for her homicide. Her story is here.

Marcia's death and this blog compelled me to work for the next 5 1/2 years to document and challenge the prison industrial complex in AZ, most specifically as manifested in the Arizona Department of Corrections. I corresponded with over 1,000 prisoners in that time, as well as many of their loved ones, offering all what resources I could find for fighting the AZ DOC themselves - most regarding their health or matters of personal safety.

I also began to work with the survivors of prison violence, as I often heard from the loved ones of the dead, and learned their stories. During that time I memorialized the Ghosts of Jan Brewer - state prisoners under her regime who were lost to neglect, suicide or violence - across the city's sidewalks in large chalk murals. Some of that art is here.

In November 2014 I left Phoenix abruptly to care for my family. By early 2015 I was no longer keeping up this blog site, save occasional posts about a young prisoner in solitary confinement in Arpaio's jail, Jessie B.

I'm deeply grateful to the prisoners who educated, confided in, and encouraged me throughout the years I did this work. My life has been made all the more rich and meaningful by their engagement.

I've linked to some posts about advocating for state prisoner health and safety to the right, as well as other resources for families and friends. If you are in need of additional assistance fighting the prison industrial complex in Arizona - or if you care to offer some aid to the cause - please contact the Phoenix Anarchist Black Cross at PO Box 7241 / Tempe, AZ 85281. collective@phoenixabc.org

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Ethnic studies books banned from AZ state prisons?

As I said in my previous correspondence, Mr. Ryan: you are the reason your prisoners have rioted, not me. I don't think I even have contacts on Santa Rita. You appear to have plenty of discretion as to what you will and won't allow inside your institutions...I wish your SSU officers were as vigilant about keeping the heroin out as they are about stopping the flow of my free speech.

I really didn't think those books would be off limits to adult prisoners too, but that sure is what it sounds like - this is the AZ DOC's General Counsel they sent to intimidate me, by the way. She really is scarier than Chuck - she used to be a capital crimes prosecutor at the AG's office. This newsletter isn't what I was so concerned about being confiscated, though - they still haven't responded to me on that count.

"UNAUTHORIZED PUBLICATIONS AND MATERIAL - Prohibited publications include those that by their nature or content threaten or are detrimental to the security, safety and orderly operation, or discipline of the facility, or inmate rehabilitation, or, are found to facilitate, encourage, incite, promote or instruct in criminal activity or unauthorized prison activity."

Substance abuse treatment
programs are nearly impossible to get into in the AZ Department of
Corrections, even for those who want it desperately - only 4% of all
state prisoners were able to participate in one last year, including
those we sent to private prisons specifically for DUI offenses. That's despite AZ DOC records stating that oapproximately 75% of prisoners are there for substance abuse-related crimes. Too many prisoners going in are actually clean but come out
addicted to herion, as the drug is so plentiful and alternative activities for the
mind, body and soul are so few.

On behalf of Director Ryan, I am responding to yourOctober
30, 2012 email, inquiring about the reason your Prisonwatch Newsletter
has not been disseminated to inmates at ADC complexes. In your Summer,
2012 Newsletter, titled: “Prisoners’
Justice Day 2012: Justice For Dana” you advocated that prisoners “push
back” and show resistance from injustice by requesting a subversive book
or by “support[ing] another prisoner’s resistance.” Although your
intent may have been to provoke non-violence,
inmates may construe your suggestion that they “fight the injustice from
within” as an invitation for unrest and non-compliance.

Contrary to
many of your assertions, the safety and security of the inmates and
staff is of paramount concern to ADC. In accordance
with DO 914.02, staff at each complex is authorized to withhold
publications that may have a detrimental impact on the safe and orderly
operation of the institution. Encouraging inmates to request books that
you know are prohibited or to conduct themselves
in a manner to show “resistance” violates that policy.

In
accordance with DO 914.02 and 914.08, your Newsletter, as with all
other incoming publications, is subject to screening and review. Your
Newsletter will be disseminated
to intended recipients after review provided it complies with Department
Policy.

Thank you for getting back to me on the July
Newsletter. My greater concern, though, is that my more recent
correspondence - not all of it containing calls to "resist" in a way
that could seriously threaten institutional order - has apparently been
disrupted to nearly all the prisoners I previously corresponded with.
This includes prisoners trying to access both health care and safety
because they are in harms way; I hate to answer people in such desperate
straits with silence.

Since I haven't gotten any feedback from you folks about what may be
getting confiscated or contrabanded until now, I have no idea if your
office has legitimate things you want me to tone down, or if Chuck Ryan
just doesn't want me arming his prisoners with information about
appropriately asserting their civil rights. Those are two very different
things. In any case, I'd like to know what procedures I need to follow
to protect my own rights - the "free speech" ones. How do I grieve an
ADC action that adversely affects me as a civilian? That correspondence
represents a tremendous investment of time, money, and other resources.

Much of my correspondence with prisoners is time-sensitive, as I'm
sure you are aware, so I'd really prefer confrontation over avoidance on
such matters. Please let me know what's happening with the rest of my
mail - both to and from prisoners.

"Our
strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it.
To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our
music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our
sheer relentlessness, and our ability to tell our own stories..."